


Guardian in the Leaves

by Spacewhalewriting



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, I came up with this character in junior high so don't expect it to be good, Shameless destruction, Teacher-Student Relationship, Uchihas are alive AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 01:15:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19415446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacewhalewriting/pseuds/Spacewhalewriting
Summary: TLDR: The Uchihas live





	1. Chapter 1

The last thing she remembered was the symbol of her family turning against them, towering snake summons crushing all those in their path and striking indiscriminately. Her father running her into the main house and lowering her into the crawl space under the floor through a trapdoor. She called for him and he hushed her. She hadn’t understood, reaching for her father with the light disappearing as he closed the trapdoor. She pressed her face up to the ceiling of her hiding place but could not see out. 

“You!” Her father’s voice said.

“Me.” Came another, unfamiliar voice. These were the only words. She heard her mother scream and blows landing, then the sound of bodies hitting the floor. Retreating footsteps. They were heavy and she noticed that they had not taken their shoes off before entering the house. A moment later, a liquid had soaked through the gaps in the floorboards, dripping down onto her. It was the same temperature as her body and smelled of iron. After that came the sound of the building coming down around her, the screams of her clan from outside and the running of feet. She pushed at the trapdoor but something had landed on it from the outside and she did not have the strength. The smell of smoke came, and then the quiet. The quiet went on for a long time, but when voices finally came again she recognized them and was afraid. They were not friendly voices, voices she was unrelated to and who had criticized her parents for keeping her. For what reason, she did not know. She did not call out to them, not knowing if they were searching for survivors or for her, to finish her off.

Darkness came and went nine times. She sat huddled on the dirt floor with a dirty, tearstained face. On the tenth day, starving and parched, she heard the sound of dog’s nails scraping at the ceiling, howls and barks. They had found her. She cowered. When the rubble had been cleared away and the trapdoor opened, the people who took her under the arms and lifted her into the sunlight were wearing leaf headbands. These were not from her village. As they lifted her they made her turn her face away, but not before she saw the splatters of blood on the tatami mats. The bodies had already been taken for burial. She wailed. Her eyelids felt like they were turning inside out but she was too dehydrated to produce any tears. As they carried her away she saw that the village that she had lived on the outskirts of had begun to wall up the ruins of her clan’s homes so passerby would not be tempted to go into that doomed place. They were all too glad to forget that the Hebi clan had ever lived there. As she was carried through the ruined streets the bodies had been cleared, but the marks of blood and crumbled houses remained. An entire clan, elders to children, gone. Her mother, father, brother, slaughtered in their house. She, Hebi Shinsei, seven years old, remained the only living memory of her people.

______________________________________

The shinobi who had found her took her back to the village hidden in the leaf. Dangerously dehydrated and unable or unwilling to speak, the first place she had been taken was the hospital. There she remained for more days hooked up to an IV of fluids.

Privately, in the hokage’s office, the irony of this event and its perpetrator did not escape the Konoha elders. Her home village wanted nothing to do with this child, but it would not do to let her die and so the rescue team had been sent to recover her. They knew all too intimately of the Hebi family history and what this child was, a generational anomaly that should her home village reject her, was too unique of an opportunity to let pass by. She should be raised shinobi. It came down now to who would take her in. Uchiha Fugaku had two children already, both boys, but his wife and he had always wanted a girl. It was decided that she would join their house.

____________________________

Shinsei had been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, but when she was introduced to the Uchiha household it became apparent that more was wrong than dehydration and starvation. She ate little and spoke not at all. Refused to come out of her room. She sat on the window seat looking out into the garden, from waking to sleep. Mikoto put trays of food outside her room but they sat mostly untouched. Meals became simpler and richer in hopes that they’d be more nourishing if she chose to eat them. Eventually she made bowl of fatty, salty pork broth, putting it onto a tray with two fresh pork buns. Itachi, who had yet to meet their illusive new family member, took the tray from her as she prepared to go to Shinsei’s room.

“I’ll do it.” He said. Mikoto nodded and let him.

______________________

Shinsei heard footsteps outside her room, expecting them to come and quickly go. Instead, a gentle knock came at the door. Unable to unwilling to answer, she didn’t. The door slid open and a gentle looking, dark eyed boy of perhaps fourteen stepped in.

“I heard you weren’t eating.” He said. She turned away from him to look out to the garden again. Instead of going away, he brought the tray and came to sit beside her, putting the tray on the window seat between them. Smelling the savory broth, an involuntary pang of hunger hit her. She clenched her jaw. Itachi lifted the bowl and took the spoon in his other hand, spooning up a bit and holding it up for her. “Please.” He said. She was so hungry, but eating didn’t feel right. She looked up into his eyes.

People here looked at her with such caution, as if afraid to break this frail creature who was still deciding whether or not to cling to life- but his eyes were so soft and understanding that her own filled with tears, her chin wobbling. Cautiously, her jaw creaked open and she opened her mouth. Soon, with giant tears filling her eyes and slipping down her cheeks, she sipped the broth from the proffered spoon. As it hit her tongue and she tasted the richness of the pork her stomach growled involuntarily. It had been days since her last morsel. Unable to hold on any longer she grasped his hand, slurping more urgently. He gave her the spoon but she dropped it with shaking hands, taking the bowl from him and drinking straight from the bowl. It filled her but her stomach demanded more. He tilted the bowl away from her and she wiped her chin with the back of her hand.

“Careful....you’ll make yourself sick.” He said, picking up the spoon again and dipping it into the bowl. She allowed him to take the bowl back, staring at him with dark, sober eyes as he fed her the broth, slowly.


	2. Spared one loss and submitted to another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TLDR: The Uchihas live

Shinsei still didn’t speak much but she emerged from her prison to follow behind Itachi like a shadow. She discovered her other brother, Sasuke, and discovered that she had to vie for Itachi’s attention, which caused her to begin speaking again. Coaxed by him, she began to eat more regular meals. Her pain was far from behind her, but her personality began to come out in stops and starts as she was forced to come out of her shell in order to compete for his attention. One day when she and Sasuke were nine and Itachi was sixteen, he woke her before the sun rose. He’d packed a breakfast for the two of them in two bento boxes wrapped in cotton cloths. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, questioning.

“We’re going on an adventure.” He whispered, holding his finger to his lips so she wouldn’t ask questions. She accepted this, getting dressed. It was the weekend and she didn’t have academy today. Itachi had graduated some years previously and wore his leaf headband wrapped around his forehead. Nobody else was awake and as they put on their shoes and left the house she finally had asked:

“Is Sasuke coming?” She was happy to have Itachi to herself, but the three of them usually went together on outings. 

“It’s just us today.” He answered. Hopping on one foot to adjust the strap of her shoe, she jogged to catch up, catching his hand and twisting her fingers between his. He looked down at her and his eyes were serious. She gazed up at him and wondered, but her child’s mind could not fathom their depths and so she did not question. They walked out of the village and into the woods, stopping at a practice field and sitting to eat their bentos. When they were finished Itachi got up to one knee and rested his arms across that knee, speaking carefully.

“Shinsei, we’re going to play a game, ok?” She nodded, wondering what kind of game. “I want you to close your eyes and count, as high as you can.” He said. “That’s it. And no peeking.”

“But what are-” She began and he held up a hand to stop her.

“Count as high as you can. Close your eyes.” He said. She obeyed, clamping her eyes shut and little fists clenching. She began counting. She felt the kiss on her forehead and when she opened her eyes to peek, he was gone. It was just a game. She closed her eyes again and counted. She counted until the numbers seemed like nonsense, until the sun was high in the sky. Eventually she heard voices. She opened her eyes and she was picked up to her feet. It was Iruka Sensei.

“What are you doing all the way out here by yourself? Why did you leave the house alone? Your parents were so worried.” Iruka said. She kept counting.

“We’re playing a game.” She said, stubbornly counting and stumbling over the numbers that didn’t mean anything anymore.

“Who?” He asked.

“Itachi and me.” She said. Iruka looked around and Itachi was nowhere to be seen. After a few days it became apparent that Itachi wasn’t coming back. They sent out search parties into the surrounding woods and to take word to other villages but there was no sign of him. They questioned her but she did not know the answers and so her mouth clamped shut and refused to open. Itachi was gone and again she had lost something precious.

___________________________

Itachi had considered it. Seriously considered it. Prepared and steeled himself for it.

But in the end he couldn’t do it. Not to them, but to her. She didn’t deserve more pain, not a tragic repeat of the worst thing that had ever happened to her- could probably ever happen to her. She was only nine. Hadn’t even graduated to genin yet. Didn’t know anything about the world and yet had intimate knowledge of agony. Even if the Hokage had not said to spare her, he would have. And there was Sasuke to think about. They were just children. Sasuke would be at the academy sweeping floors and scrubbing windows today, as he had gotten a detention the previous week, so Itachi hadn’t had to shield him the way that he had planned to shield Shinsei. He’d taken her out of the house so she might not witness the destruction of another clan, another family, and in the end he couldn’t do it.

So he left.


End file.
